Pub crawl aims to bring out HBC’s LGBTQ community

A pub crawl event spanning three LGBTQIA+-owned businesses in central Seoul’s Haebangchon (HBC) neighborhood this Sunday promises to “Make HBC Gay Again.”

People of all genders and sexual orientations are invited to celebrate love, diversity and inclusion with a full night of drag shows, DJ sets, go-go boy performances, palm readings and a talent show. Each venue offers a lemon drop shot on entry to all paying participants. Each additional drink purchase comes with a raffle ticket.

“I wanted to do an evening supporting gay venues on the street,” said Brett, who took full ownership of Rabbithole Arcade Pub last November. “There are a lot of LGBTQIA+ residents here.”

The procession will bounce up and down HBC’s Sinheung-ro. Festivities begin at Phillies, which features a drag show from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., as well as afternoon drink specials. From there, the party moves downhill to Social Haven, where there will be a drag queen

DJ set, a go-go boy show and palm readings. Then, the fun moves to Rabbithole Arcade Pub, where a talent show will be held.

The talent show will be judged by the owners of the three participating venues, two of whom are gay men named Brett.

Regarding the number of HBC business owners named Brett involved, Rabbithole’s Brett doubled down.

“There’s actually like four gay Bretts that hang around here,” he remarked.

The grand prize for the talent show is 200,000 won, with 75,000 won for second place and 25,000 won for third place, plus an “audience favorite” prize. Competitors should sign up by sending their name, KakaoTalk handle, email address and type of act to @rabbithole_hbc on Instagram.

Signing up in advance to join Make HBC Gay Again costs 25,000 won, or 10,000 won for entry to each of the three individual venues.

Follow @philliespub, @socialhaven.seoul and @rabbithole_hbc on Instagram for more information and for a link to a signup form on Google.